Ventriloquy?[Jackeroe]

[Danicca Waylan]

[D]A[N]I[C]C!?

Ventriloquy. She had taken one of those stupid career placement tests, and her top result was Ventriloquy.

Irony aside, why couldn't it be something like, "Work for Myth-busters" or "Catapult Engineer"? Plus, shouldn't it have directed her in a more, you know, socially acceptable line of work? Or at least one she personally didn't want to shoot with a paintball gun.

Dani was in the training room, sitting on the floor and blowing a strand of hair out of her bored-expressioned face, wearing her usual sneakers, jeans, and random shirt, (this one reading "Eliminate Worldsuck!") when she got a delightful idea to cure her boredom. She had her messenger bag with random items, and still some time before the trainer arrived. So, she filled a small cup with water from her bottle, set it on the top of the just-nearly-closed door that she rigged at the perfect angle to stay until opened, and hoped that he would be the first person to arrive.

She had done it to him before, but it was an accident that time, meant for a fellow student that had arrived in time to see Dani's glare and piece things together. She had gotten detention for that, not because of the trainer, but because the other student told. She had tried to explain that it was an accident.

It didn't count if it was an accident.

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[Jackeroe Connick]

Jackeroe loved new students almost as much as he loved pie.

And he loved pie quite a lot. Just saying.

The trainer’s walk had a bounce to it and he was whistling a cheerful tune as he made his way to his office for his next appointment, running a little late due to a lunch break that had gone over too long thanks to his appetite for potato chips and the teacher’s lounge vending machine’s unwillingness to hand over what was rightfully his. In the end he had emerged victorious, as always, but he was also emerging five minutes late. Duly noted, he sped up his walk a smidgen, not quite running yet but he was walking with quite a purposeful speed.

Arriving at his office, Jackeroe straightened his hat, took a deep breath, pushed open his door-

And jumped back, yelling in surprise as a glass of water fell in front of him, narrowly missing his nose and splattering onto his jeans and carpet instead. “Sweet Buddhist Jesus!” He said, pushing the brim of his hat up as he picked the glass off the floor, shaking it empty on the carpeting outside his room. He noted Danicca, his newest pupil, was sitting on the floor rather than in one of the copious amounts of beanbags or even in the bench seat of a car, complete with lap belt.

“Almost got me there.” He praised her, handing her the cup with a flick of his hat and a bow. “But no-ones outsmarted Jacky Connick yet, and let’s just say I fight back, eh?” Oh, how he would have fun setting up a bucket of glitter and a fan to catch her with while she was in class. He was already scheming. “Now then. You’re the voice mimickor, right?” He sauntered across the room to pick up her file, leafing through it. "Change your voice to other people’s? Sounds like loads of fun for a troublemaker like you." He looked up and gave her a wink. “But we’ll get to the fun bits later on. As for now, how about a little T.V.? Heard you like you some anime?”

Oh, what fun they shall have.

[Danicca Waylan]

[D]A[N]I[C]C!?

Dani watched the door with anticipation, and felt highly disappointed that her water didn't hit the trainer in the face this time. It was such a perfect setup, and he was even just a little bit late to the session, which meant that he would likely be in a hurry to enter the room. Why, oh why did he have to dodge? Dani vocalized her disappointment with a sigh and a muttered, "Well, you're no fun." At least his pants had been soaked, though. That had to be something.

She didn't like the Idea of him fighting back much more than she liked his chipper little hat not being soaked by her cup. She took the cup back with only a mild glare, though, liking that they had chosen someone that could fight on her level for her new trainer. The other trainers did nothing for her, and Honor, from whom she had just been transferred, was just plain scary, and had kept yelling at her to switch from one person's voice to another until Dani's throat was dry. Hopefully this would go differently, although she couldn't say exactly what situation it was she hoped for.

"Not just voices," She said, and attempted at a wolf howl. It didn't sound exactly right, and that was putting it mildly. She still had no clue how to control "this thing", as she kindly referred to it in her mind. "Anyway." She said, looking away to hide her embarrassment. She perked up at the mention of anime, but paused and stared at Jacky with undisguised suspicion. "Okay." She said warily. "What's the catch?"

If she only knew, she would have stopped questioning him then and there, instead plotting his downfall for using her in a way that she would actually have fun with.

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[Jackeroe Connick]

Jackeroe listened to Danica’s wolf howl with a critical ear. He had heard coyotes before so he had a general idea of how it should sound, and after he finished he nodded and pointed to his throat. “Needs to come more from here and have a bit more roundness to it. You’re not quite there but you’re close.” He noted she was looking off and he frowned, deciding that, along with training her powers, he would also work on her confidence; or lack thereof when speaking to adults. For one who pulled so many pranks, a simple failure on a wolf call shouldn’t shake her.

“No catch. Not really.” He moved to the side and took hold of a giant tiki mask on a shelf, pulling it down to reveal a flat screen TV about the size of a computer monitor resting behind it. He went over to the other side of the room and pulled back a curtain of beads to reveal a microwave, the shelf below stocked with popcorn. “Do you like One Piece, or Fullmetal Alchemist? I don’t have Bleach; I think it’s about the stupidest series on the planet.” As well as the longest and most anticlimactic. He quit reading it after the arc about destroying Aizen, it was such a letdown. Soul Eater was his favorite though- it was so damn funny.

After making sure the popcorn was popping, he took off to the shelving unit behind his desk, pulling open a mini-fridge that was disguised as a bank safe. “Pepsi? Mountain Dew?” He asked with cheer, pulling out a can of Pepsi for himself. “In a nutshell, we are going to watch us some anime all week. I’ll pause it and ask you to mimic the voice actor, then we’ll continue. It won’t be hard.” He popped the can open and took a swig. “And this way if you get stuck with a voice it’ll be something cool.” He’d like to sound like Vic Mignogna any day, if only for a little while. “Does any of this put up any red flags? Because if so, we can watch movies instead. I’ve got Monty Python!”

Oh yeah. He was such a child.

[Danicca Waylan]

[D]A[N]I[C]C!?

Dani simply nodded, taking the criticism silently and filing it away for later. She would be messing up a lot over the course of the training with Jacky. She would be thinking of him as that for the rest of her life unless something else happened to change that.

Oh, holy Beelz. Really? She got to watch anime for her training? Ohmyholygoodgod. She thought. This guy is perfect. She had to close her mouth before it attracted flies, and said in response, readjusting herself to look casual again, although her eyes betrayed her excitement. "Oh, FMA, for sure. One Piece sucked once they changed to the Funimation dub." She agreed with him about Bleach. "And I think it took way too long to get to anything good, in Bleach."

Dani examined the room as the trainer opened a safe--er, refrigerator--and noticed that there was a set of beanbag chairs. She would move, but she had just gotten comfortable on the floor. Distracted, she barely registered Jackeroe's question. "Hm?" She looked back in his direction. "Oh, Um... Pepsi, I guess. Got a straw for me?" She preferred to drink any soda from a straw, really. When he told her of the plans for the week, Dani was honestly excited. She'd just adore to be stuck with Travis Willingham's voice, if she had to get stuck with another voice this week. Mustang had to have the most perfect voice for a male commander.

When he asked of red flags and Monty Python, Dani shook her head. "Oh, no. That's cool, man. We can do Monty Python when we're finished with FMA. I haven't seen this show in ages."

Okay, she could get to him later. For now, there was anime to watch.

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[Jackeroe Connick]

Jackeroe sorted through his fickle at-work anime collection, putting One Piece back on the shelf. “Nah, it’s alright. At least now they can have real guns and the edits aren’t pointless.” The water gun thing really wasn’t cutting it for Jacky. He did nod with her when it came to Bleach though, and he sat his Fullmetal Alchemist box set on the desk, along with The Conqueror of Shambala movie and the first Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood box set. He hadn’t bought part two yet, he was waiting for all of it to come out on box set first. Until then, he could easily stream it on his laptop.

There were more than just neon-colored beanbag chairs in Jackeroe’s room, there was all manners of seating. His room was a cacophony of color and a resting place for all oddities under the sun. He had a bobble head doll of Gandhi on his desk, for goodness sakes. One could always find something new to look at in his room, between him dressing up his tacky pink flamingo toys or his habit for rearranging whenever the urge hit him. In fact, he would have to do it soon. It had been a good three weeks since he last did.

“A wise choice. I like you already.” Jackeroe pulled out another can to sit on his cluttered desk. “Straws?” He paused, trying to remember exactly where he had put them before turning back to his desk, opening a drawer before pulling out a plastic crazy straw. “This’ll do. And, you can even keep it.” He contemplated getting one of his own, but decided against it and shut the drawer again, rounding the desk with two unopened cans and a straw in one hand and the DVD’s in another. He handed her the soda and straw, and once she took it he handed her the DVD’s. “Pick one, I don’t care which.” He let her have at it as he pulled the popcorn bag out, emptying the contents into two bowls that looked and felt like tortoise shells.

(They weren’t, honest to god. He had made absolute sure they were plastic and that no turtles were harmed in the making of them before he even thought about buying them.) He sat them on a platter made out of an old and weathered stop sign before he headed back to the clear spot on the floor, setting it down between where they would sit before reaching for a DVD. “C’mon, c’mon. We only have most of the day, not all of it.” He grinned, trying to remember if her session was one hour or two hours long.

[Danicca Waylan]

[D]A[N]I[C]C!?

"Yeah." Dani said resignedly. "But then I liked Sanji better with his original accent--and before he was a smoker. That lollipop was hot." She perked up when he set down the first Brotherhood set. (Yes, she was paying attention. After suspicion comes curiosity for this girl.) She hadn't seen it outside of the Japanese dubs online yet. Maybe she could... Nah. Go with the classics, Dani. It was your favorite. You know you want to.

She was leaning in the direction of demanding Brotherhood be watched, but she wasn't sure. At the moment, she was distracted by what looked like a flamingo with an Oroboros tattoo. It was strangely ironic, and she liked it. Her attention was re-gained by the trainer for a moment when he pulled out the crazy straw, and Dani found the word Interesting popping into her mind in relation to her power trainer. She took a soda from him and popped it open, enjoying the satisfactory shhnik sound and dropping the straw into the opening.

When she saw the bowls he was dropping the popcorn into, Dani raised an eyebrow. "Are those what I think they are?" She decided to grab the Brotherhood set before he decided for her. "This or nothing. I demand to see the English dub of it."

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[Jackeroe Connick]

“The accent wasn’t bad, I think.” He agreed with her on that. “I didn’t like the lollipop though, it just showed how lazy the animators for 4kids were. There wouldn’t have been a problem if they edited it out.” He snorted at the idea of kid’s show animators being lazy. They all practically had a dream job handed to them, the least they could do was act like they enjoyed it. “Besides, they skipped so many important arcs. Skipping Little Garden and the giants made no sense, especially when Mr. 3 showed up out of nowhere and Nami got sick for no reason. They ended up making up episodes just to skip it.” He didn’t even start on how they bought the license for One Piece as a package deal without even watching it first. He knew a bit too much about anime for his own good, admittedly.

The trainer took the DVD from her as she held it up, passing to pop it into the player as he talked. “They aren’t real, I promise. I had the same reaction.” If they had been real, he wouldn’t have bought them. “If you look on the rim there’s a stamp saying ‘Made in Taiwan.’ They’re just plastic.” He flipped the TV on, pausing as her caught CNN’s news broadcast flickering to life before changing it over to Video 1, the DVD input. He pressed on the disc tray and the disk slid in as he walked off, pulling up a beanbag chair for him to sit on rather than to floor.

“There are basically two different schools of thought floating around when it comes to training young meta-humans.” He explained during the commercials, sitting the remote down. “Some trainers work with controlling, others work with enhancing. I do more of the latter.” He put a hand to his chest. “My power in power regulation, meaning I can boost your power or dial it back. I believe in using powers daily when it comes to your life, enhancing it, rather than going your whole life without it by controlling it.” He paused, letting it sink in. “But I also believe in using your power responsibly. And we’ll talk about that part once you have better control.”

With that in mind, the commercials ended and the title menu came on- he pressed play, and off they went.